Just how much impact can one 6-foot, 245-pound slugger have on a playoff series?
We’re about to find out now that Vladimir Guerrero Jr. has checked into the American League Championship Series.
Vladdy was an equal-opportunity destroyer in Game 3: Nearly drilling a hole through the left field fence with a key double, eluding the leaping grasp of center fielder Julio Rodriguez with a tack-on home run, and splitting the gap in right center field for what could’ve been a triple and a playoff cycle.
Vladdy was a soothsayer, pulling aside No. 9 hitter Andrés Giménez before the game and telling the light-hitting shortstop, “You’re going to go yard today.”
“I told him, try to pull the ball,” Guerrero said in a Fox Sports postgame interview of the conversation with Giménez that preceded his game-tying, two-run homer. “He listened to me, and thank God he goes yard today.”
